Replacing 2-prong receptacle with 3-Prong -NO GROUND WIRE

Asked Feb 21, 2008, 01:45 PM
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6 Answers

Hi there! I was wondering if someone can tell me how exactly I go about doing this safely. I have an existing 2 prong ungrounded plug... theres no ground to this receptacle... old metal box does not seem to be grounded either. I would like to replace this receptacle with a 3 prong GFCI receptacle, and add 2 additional receptacles on this circuit. The room is a bedroom and the load on the circuit would be a lamp and computer/peripherals. I need something to protect my computer in the case of a power surge. I know I can connect all the receptacles ignoring the ground wire on the downstream receptacles and label the receptacles non grounded GFCI, however, I really would prefer an easy way to actually make this circuit grounded. The light, switch, other receptacle in the room are grounded with new wiring... this is the only one in the house that is still knob & tube. I can't add additional receptacles on the other grounded circuit as I fear the load will exceed 15 amps.

Thank you all for responding so fast! Agreed that I can't connect the ground of the 14/2 to the old wiring, as if there was a short anything connected to this receptacle and all the receptacles downstream would become "live". It is code with both NEC and CEC to replace 2 prong with 3 prong as long as its labelled as such. So basically, I should just replace the 2 prong to 3 prong gfci, label it as ungrounded gfci, but Im still worried that if I plug in a surge protector bar into this receptacle, that in the event of a power surge, the surge protector will become useless and my PC and other electronics will be damaged. Is there a way to get around this so that the surge protector will work? Its an old victorian house and it would be a huge job to bring a brand new wire from the breaker panel up to the third floor.

Another thing I was thinking, the other receptacle in the room is new wiring and comes from the breaker (14/2), although there's a lot of load on this circuit (6 halogen potlights, 1 5 light halogen light fixture, 4 halogen spotlights, 2 40watt bulbs in the ceiling light, 3 receptacles and 1 microwave) can I somehow add more receptacles on it and change it to 20 amps as opposed to 15 amps just at the breaker?

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